The present disclosure relates to virtual file systems, and in particular, a runtime library including a virtual file system.
A runtime library is a collection of utility functions that support a program while it is running, working with the operating system to provide facilities such as mathematical functions, input and output. The use of a runtime library can simplify the task of coding new applications since a programmer need not continually rewrite basic capabilities that are instead provided by the runtime library. More recent runtime libraries work in conjunction with the operating system of a computer to form a runtime environment that provides programmers with substantial new functionality, above and beyond what the operating system provides, further simplifying the programming task. For example, the JAVA™ Virtual Machine (JVM) is a runtime that provides a dispatcher and classloader for handling inter-process communications and object class definitions, respectively.
Some runtime environments also provide storage access functions that allow a program to create and access a private storage area in a local hard drive, thus allowing a program to have persistent local storage for its private data, while preventing other programs from accessing the program's private data. For example, the JAVA™ security model allows one to set up security privileges such that a particular application can only see part of the hard drive and can only read and write to that part. Also, the .NET™ framework includes an Isolated Storage Containment feature, in which storage can be isolated by user, machine, assembly or domain.